Retrieved on 1/14/14 from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Aristotle_Altemps_Inv8575.jpg
Hello my name is Aristotle. I was born in 384 BCE in the ancient city of Stagira. At the age of eighteen I joined Plato's academy which blazed the trail of academia in an ancient world defined by the supernatural and mythology. My interest in philosophy lead me to vigorously study many fields such as; metaphysics, physics, biology, and most importantly for our case, logic and reasoning. My initial claim to fame came after teaching the conqueror of the known world, Alexander the Great. With this status I had access to the resources needed to produce around 200 treatises explaining my ground breaking theories; however only 31 remain intact today.
I'm often referred to as the 'father of logic' and emphasized that the validity of an argument is carried in the structure rather than the content. To exemplify this I use the simple syllogism: All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates is a mortal. So in this brand of logic as long as the initial premises hold the final conclusion is guaranteed to be true as well.
My faith in the scientific method has fueled my belief in sensory learning. In my treatise On the Soul I compare human memory to a blank slate that can be imprinted. So following this theory; all humans are born with their 'blank slate' memory. Then throughout our experience our senses (perception or the outside world) leave behind physical impressions in our brain which would be synonymous to a memory. For example, suppose that you were born yesterday and have no prior knowledge of what a horse is. Then imagine seeing a horse for the first time and hearing someone explain that this animal is indeed a horse. Your visual and auditory experience of what a horse is, is then (according to my ancient theory) physically imprinted into your memory allowing you to recall that information the next time you see or think about a horse.
Click to read my treatise On the Soul (for free!!)
While at The Academy, Plato taught with strong abstract logic. After his death I began to break away from this abstract form of reasoning. I began classifying things into categories and subcategories and then using these observed differences to draw conclusions or support a previously formulated hypothesis. For example I divided people into groups based on race, gender, and their geographic location and based assumptions off this data.
"The nations inhabiting the cold places and those of Europe are full of spirit but somewhat deficient in intelligence and skill, so they continue to be comparatively free, but lacking in political organization and capacity to rule their neighbors. The peoples of Asia on the other hand are intelligent and skillful in temperament, but lack spirit, so they are in continuous subjugation and slavery. But the Greek race participates in both characters, just as it occupies the middle position geographically."
Retrieved on 1/17 from http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4597561878906546&w=180&h=182&c=7&rs=1&pid=1.7
Hello my name is Aristotle. I was born in 384 BCE in the ancient city of Stagira. At the age of eighteen I joined Plato's academy which blazed the trail of academia in an ancient world defined by the supernatural and mythology. My interest in philosophy lead me to vigorously study many fields such as; metaphysics, physics, biology, and most importantly for our case, logic and reasoning. My initial claim to fame came after teaching the conqueror of the known world, Alexander the Great. With this status I had access to the resources needed to produce around 200 treatises explaining my ground breaking theories; however only 31 remain intact today.
I'm often referred to as the 'father of logic' and emphasized that the validity of an argument is carried in the structure rather than the content. To exemplify this I use the simple syllogism: All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates is a mortal. So in this brand of logic as long as the initial premises hold the final conclusion is guaranteed to be true as well.
My faith in the scientific method has fueled my belief in sensory learning. In my treatise On the Soul I compare human memory to a blank slate that can be imprinted. So following this theory; all humans are born with their 'blank slate' memory. Then throughout our experience our senses (perception or the outside world) leave behind physical impressions in our brain which would be synonymous to a memory. For example, suppose that you were born yesterday and have no prior knowledge of what a horse is. Then imagine seeing a horse for the first time and hearing someone explain that this animal is indeed a horse. Your visual and auditory experience of what a horse is, is then (according to my ancient theory) physically imprinted into your memory allowing you to recall that information the next time you see or think about a horse.
Click to read my treatise On the Soul (for free!!)
While at The Academy, Plato taught with strong abstract logic. After his death I began to break away from this abstract form of reasoning. I began classifying things into categories and subcategories and then using these observed differences to draw conclusions or support a previously formulated hypothesis. For example I divided people into groups based on race, gender, and their geographic location and based assumptions off this data.
"The nations inhabiting the cold places and those of Europe are full of spirit but somewhat deficient in intelligence and skill, so they continue to be comparatively free, but lacking in political organization and capacity to rule their neighbors. The peoples of Asia on the other hand are intelligent and skillful in temperament, but lack spirit, so they are in continuous subjugation and slavery. But the Greek race participates in both characters, just as it occupies the middle position geographically."
More information can be found at:
www.human-memory.net/intro_study.html
classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/memory.html
http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/phil11.htm